We applied spatially shaped ultra-short pulses for laser micro-machining on the SiNx/c-Si layer system for the investigation of the selectivity ablation behavior of the sub-micrometer-thick SiNx top layer. In comparison to Gaussian beams, intensity spatially shaped pulses have the potential to minimize the superfluous energy in the peak region over the ablation threshold fluence as well as a steeper intensity drop at the side edge of the pulses. This can lead to more precise lateral and vertical ablation properties of the top thin film layer and lower modification or damage to the silicon substrate and the adjacent region. We compare the ablation variations due to beam shaping via light microscopic measurements on the micrometer-laser spot structures as well as the crystalline phases and stress modification via μm-Raman in the ablated spot, adjacent modified regions, and untreated reference areas. We focus on the design and fabrication of silicon membranes as advanced filters with a particular emphasis on controlling pore size and inter-pore distances to optimize filtration performance.
Ultra-short laser material processing has received much attention due to the broad applications across nearly all manufacturing sectors. Ultra-short laser ablation is a complex phenomenon involving laser energy spatial distribution, energy absorption on the irradiated surface, transient changes in optical response, and ablation. In order to determine the ablation characteristics and performance, a fundamental study of the interaction between ultra-short laser pulses and the material will be valuable. A theoretical analysis of ultra-short laser-matter interaction can be represented by the two-temperature model which describes the temperature of the electron or carrier and lattice in non-equilibrium conditions when ultra-short laser pulses are applied. During ultrafast irradiation, due to peculiarities between the metal energy absorption to in contrast to semiconductor, a comparative study of silicon and gold ablation mechanism presented. A 2D axial symmetry simulated ablation profiles were compared with the experimental result at fluence ranging from 1 J/cm2 to 9 J/cm2 at the wavelength of 515 nm and 180 fs laser on the silicon and gold sample. The concordance between model calculations and experimental data demonstrates that fs laser ablation of silicon is thermal in nature in a low fluence regime, whereas it is non-thermal in a high-fluence regime. On the other hand, the phase explosion mechanism is prevalent to understand the ablation characteristics of gold with fs pulses. Fundamental information such as the time evolution of the carrier density in silicon, carrier or electron temperature evolution, and lattice temperature evolution can be obtained from the simulation results.
A fundamental study of the interaction of ultrashort pulses and metal will be useful for predicting the ablation morphology and optimizing the process parameters. To study the ultrashort laser pulse interaction on gold, a set of coupled partial differential equations of the two-temperature model was solved in the spatial and time domains with dynamic optical properties and phase explosion mechanism. In an extended Drude model which also takes into account inter-band transitions, the reflectivity and absorption coefficient are contemplated based on the electron relaxation time. The laser energy deposition and phase explosion ablation mechanism are analyzed in the case of succession of laser pulses on the gold with experimental results for fundamental wavelength 1030 nm and fluence ranging from 3 J/cm2 to 18 J/cm2. Electron-lattice thermal relaxation time and separation time are important factors for multi-pulse laser ablation and have been studied. The simulation results demonstrate that by increasing the number of pulses with a shorter separation time compared to electron-lattice thermal relaxation time, lattice temperature can be considerably increased without a noticeable increase in ablation depth. In the study of multiple pulses femtosecond laser ablation, the computational model indicates that succession of laser pulses with a pulse separation time of 50 ps or longer can significantly boost the ablation rate at the same laser fluence. Thus, the deviation from experimental and simulation results gives rise to the conclusion that temporal pulse manipulation with separation time greater than the electron-lattice relaxation time is a useful technique for increasing ablation rate in industrial fast femtosecond laser processing.
Two different transparent conductive oxides (TCO) were deposited by magnetron sputtering on borate glasses. The influence
of sputtering conditions on optical, electrical and microstructural properties was much higher for indium tin
oxide (ITO) than for aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films. Specific resistivity values obtained from simulation of
the optical spectra are in good agreement with values obtained from four-point probe measurements.
Transparent, rare-earth doped fluorozirconate-based glasses and glass ceramics are attractive systems as up- and downconverters
to increase solar cell efficiency. For down-conversion applications, the efficiency of a silicon solar cell could
be significantly increased in the ultraviolet spectral range by placing a europium-doped glass ceramic on top. High
transparency is a key issue here to avoid scattering losses and to obtain high light output. Transmission spectra of fluorozirconate
glasses, which were additionally doped with chlorine ions to initiate the growth of BaCl2 nanoparticles
therein upon thermal annealing, show that the absorbance in the visible spectral depends significantly on the annealing
conditions. For up-conversion applications, erbium-doped fluorozironate glasses have been investigated. 2-dimensional
intensity mapping of the up-converted fluorescence yielded information on the homogeneity of the glass sample and the
erbium distribution therein. Depth scan experiments showed that the position of the focus of the excitation laser beam
plays a crucial role since saturation of the 2-photon up-conversion occurs for high excitation power.
Borate glasses and borate glass ceramics are good candidates as a matrix material for fluorescent ions like samarium.
The chosen network modifier influences the fluorescence efficiency of the incorporated rare earth ion. Sm3+-doped lithium,
sodium, barium and lead borate glasses were examined with respect to their fluorescence properties and potential
use as a down-converting top layer of a solar cell.
Transparent glasses as up- or down-converters are attractive systems to increase the efficiency of solar cells. Er-doped
fluorozirconate (FZ) glasses show an intense up-conversion upon excitation at 1540 nm. Transmission spectra show that
the absorbance at 1540 nm grows linearly with the Er-doping level. In Eu-doped FZ glasses, which were additionally
doped with chlorine ions, the growth of BaCl2 nanocrystals can be observed upon thermal annealing. For high annealing
temperatures a phase change from hexagonal to orthorhombic phase BaCl2 can be seen. Upon excitation in the ultraviolet
(UV) spectral range these glass ceramics emit an intense blue emission. A combination of a silicon solar cell and an
Eu-doped FZ glass ceramic as a down-converting top layer shows an increase in the short circuit current in the UV
spectral range compared to a solar cell without a down-converting top layer.
KEYWORDS: Glasses, External quantum efficiency, Luminescence, Solar cells, Upconversion, Photons, Near infrared, Silicon solar cells, Doping, Solar energy
Transparent erbium-doped fluorozirconate (FZ) glasses are attractive systems for upconversion-based solar cells. Upconverted
fluorescence intensity vs. excitation power dependence was investigated for a series of erbium-doped FZ
glasses. It was found that the ratio of the 2-photon upconverted emission in the near infrared at 980 nm to the 3-photon
upconverted emissions in the visible at 530, 550, and 660 nm decreases with increasing excitation power. The integrated
upconverted fluorescence intensity per excitation power shows "saturation" upon increasing the excitation power,
while the point of saturation shifts to lower excitation power with increasing erbium doping level. To demonstrate
the potential of these upconverters for photovoltaic applications, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of a commercial
monocrystalline silicon solar cell with an Er-doped FZ glass on top of it was measured. For an excitation power of
1 mW at a wavelength of 1540 nm an EQE of 1.6% was found for a 9.1 mol% Er-doped FZ glass. The samples investigated
were not optically coupled to the solar cell and no optical coating was applied to the glass surface.
The concept of a 3D photonic crystal structure as diffractive and spectrally selective intermediate filter within
'micromorphous' (a-Si/μc-Si) tandem solar cells has been investigated numerically and experimentally. Our device aims
for the enhancement of the optical pathway of incident light within the amorphous silicon top cell in its spectral region of
low absorption. From our previous simulations, we expect a significant improvement of the tandem cell efficiency of
about absolutely 1.3%. This increases the efficiency for a typical a-Si / μc-Si tandem cell from 11.1% to 12.4%, as a
result of the optical current-matching of the two junctions. We suggest as wavelength-selective optical element a 3D-structured
optical thin-film, prepared by self-organized artificial opal templates and replicated with atomic layer
deposition. The resulting samples are highly periodic thin-film inverted opals made of conducting and transparent zinc-oxide.
We describe the fabrication processes and compare experimental data on the optical properties in reflection and
transmission with our simulations and photonic band structure calculations.
Thermal processing of as-made fluorozirconate glasses which were additionally doped with neodymium and chlorine
ions leads to enhanced up-conversion fluorescence intensities in these glass ceramics. The samples were annealed between
240°C and 290°C while the optimum value was found for the 270°C sample. We investigated the power dependence
of the infrared fluorescence, the 2-photon up-conversion, and the 3-photon up-conversion fluorescence intensities
as well as the corresponding radiative lifetimes. In analogy to the up-conversion intensity, the radiative lifetime of the
Nd3+ fluorescence at about 880 nm depends significantly on the annealing temperature: the longest lifetime was observed
for the 270°C sample.
We suggest three-dimensional photonic crystals as a direction selective filter for ultra-light trapping in solar
cells. 3D photonic crystals allow tailoring of the photonic stop gap in space and energy. We analyzed different
photonic crystal structures concerning their spectral and direction selective properties and defined two figures of
merit for our application: a quality factor and a transmission coefficient. By analyzing different experimentally
feasible 3D photonic crystals, we found that the inverted opal has the best properties. We verified the direction
selective properties of the inverted opal in the microwave spectral range and found a very good agreement
between experiment and simulation.
KEYWORDS: Silicon, Photonic crystals, Diffraction, Thin films, Photons, Absorption, Crystals, Thin film solar cells, Optical spheres, Tandem solar cells
We suggest an energy selective and diffractive optical element as intermediate layer in thin-film tandem solar cells. By
adjusting the lattice constant of this photonic crystal, we fitted the optical properties to match a silicon tandem pair. Our
device enhances the pathway of incident light within an amorphous silicon top cell in its spectral region of low
absorption. In this spectral overlap region of the tandem-junction's quantum efficiencies, photons are being transferred
towards the amorphous cell, which leads to an increase in the short-circuit current of the limiting top cell. From our
simulations we expect a current increase of 1.44mA/cm2 for an - amorphous/microcrystalline - silicon tandem cell,
corresponding to improvement of the tandem's absolute efficiency of about 1.3%.
Photovoltaic tandem and triple solar cells are currently being developed and produced with reasonable efficiencies at high technological cost. The concept of spectrum splitting has been proposed with the advantage of compatibility to all types of cells. Although additional optical efforts are to be made, external photon management can be achieved to match different solar cell combinations no matter which band gaps involved or how the cells are connected. We present an experimental study comparing optical devices based on either interference or diffraction for tandem and triple cell configurations. Whereas diffractive media such as gratings suffer intrinsically from higher order diffraction losses, devices based on interference such as Bragg filter can yield a significant efficiency increase. For a triple cell configuration consisting of GaInP/GaInAs/GaSb, a net efficiency gain of more than 30% is shown in a solar cell simulator compared to the best cell in direct light.
Highly-ordered two dimensional arrays of monodisperse silver and nickel nanowires were prepared in an alumina matrix. The nearly 100% filling of the template with metal was obtained by improved electrochemical deposition technique. The light propagation in the direction of the long axis of the metal nanowires were studied by far field spectroscopy and the results were compared with the generalized Mie theory. By selectively dissolving the matrix at a constant etching rate the we investigate the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the results are interpreted with theoretical models. The enhanced SERS signal can be recorded until the whole matrix was removed and the ordering of the metal nanowires collapses.
Admittance matching is generally used in the design of optical components which require in the same time high reflectance and high transmission bands. The matching is done at the both sides of the basic stack by synthesizing an equivalent layer with symmetrical three layer periods. In order to obtain a broad transmission band, a quasi-matching is necessary around the matching wavelength. The paper studies the solutions provided by analytical synthesis of the matching stack for a number of one to three periods.
The paper presents the design of a dichroic mirror used in a Nd:YAG high power laser to reflect the 1.44 micrometers radiation and to transmit the 1.064 micrometers one. In order to obtain a wide transmission band, all the solutions for matching basic stack with the substrate, consisting in a number of periods less or equal than three, were investigated and the best was selected. The solutions were obtained by analytical inversion of the equations for the three layer equivalent system.
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